For years the standard Alpine summer weekend ran as one big loop. You could walk down through the Alpine Picnic Area, pick up the Shore Trail south, climb the Giant Stairs, and come back along the cliff top past State Line Lookout. Or you could drive Henry Hudson Drive end to end and pick a picnic area by mood. Neither of those plans works in 2026, and residents who keep trying to run them keep getting turned around at closure signs.
The park has quietly reorganized itself into two disconnected stems, one on the water and one on the cliff top, and the summer works better if you stop trying to link them. Here is how the weekend actually assembles now.
The two stems the closures created
Two long-standing routes are out for the season, and both are worth knowing before you leave the driveway.
- The Giant Stairs section of the Shore Trail near State Line Lookout has been closed since January 9, 2026 due to a major rockfall and slide, with the area unsafe due to the risk of additional rockfall activity. No reopening date has been posted.
- Henry Hudson Drive is closed to all use, vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians, from the entrance to Englewood Picnic Area north to Undercliff Picnic Area, with access to Ross Dock and Englewood from the Edgewater entrance only and access to Alpine and Undercliff from the Alpine entrance only.
- Hazard's Ramp under the George Washington Bridge is closed to all use from July 3rd, 2026 through July 5th, 2026, which matters for anyone who trailers a boat over the holiday.
- The Alpine Picnic Area and the Alpine-to-Undercliff segment of Henry Hudson Drive were closed to all use on Sunday, June 28, 2026, until 11:00 AM for the Big Apple Triathlon. That one is behind us, but the pattern of Sunday-morning race closures is worth watching for the rest of the season.
The practical read: the cliff-top stem north of Alpine and the riverfront stem south of Alpine are now planned as two separate outings, not one circuit. Trying to bridge them on foot means backtracking the way you came.
The cliff-top stem: Old Route 9W and State Line Lookout
The northern stem starts at State Line Lookout, which has its own unnumbered exit from the Palisades Interstate Parkway North in Alpine, sits at the highest point on the Palisades Cliffs about half a mile south of the state line, and includes three lookouts including Point Lookout at 520 feet. From there you have the best mile-and-a-half of paved cliff-top walking in Bergen County: Old Route 9W, a 1.5 mile section of concrete highway closed to traffic, providing pedestrian and cyclist access from US Route 9W. It is smooth, it is quiet, and with the Giant Stairs down the trail south, it is the walk that absorbs most of the demand this summer.
Two logistical notes worth setting in your calendar. Parking is now metered: the first hour is free, but drivers must enter a license plate into the pay-station or app system on arrival, with weekend rates at $2.50/hr, weekday rates at $1.50/hr, and no cash. The refreshment stand, which sits inside the 1937 "Lookout Inn," built from Palisade stone and chestnut wood in 1937-38 by the Works Progress Administration, keeps limited hours: the State Line Café is open 9:30 AM to 5 PM, the kitchen is closed Monday and Tuesday, and closes other days at 4:45 PM. If you plan to eat there, plan to be off the trail by four.
The riverfront stem: Alpine Boat Basin to the Excelsior Dock
The southern stem starts where the road down from Alpine Approach Road bottoms out. The Alpine Boat Basin is an independently operated public marina adjacent to Alpine Picnic Area, run under a lease with Alpine Marina, LLC, and the parking lot there is the trailhead for the flat walk most residents still underuse.
The best route now is the lollipop version of the Shore Trail. This easy lollipop-loop hike in the New Jersey Section of the Palisades Interstate Park parallels the shore of the Hudson River, affords panoramic views, is about 3.2 miles long, and should take about two hours. About three-quarters of a mile in, stone steps go uphill on the right and lead down to a stone jetty on the left, marking the abandoned Excelsior Dock, from which ferry service once was provided in summer months to Yonkers. At low tide you can walk out to the rocks at the end of the dock and see Bombay Hook to the north and the George Washington Bridge and Manhattan skyline to the south. Attributed to Daniel Chazin of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, and it is the cleanest description of the walk in print.
A separate note for paddlers: with Hazard's Ramp closed under the bridge, the launches that still work are informal. Canoes and kayaks can be launched during daylight hours at Bloomer's Beach at the north end of Englewood Picnic Area and at the beach north of Alpine Picnic Area. Englewood requires driving in through the Edgewater entrance now that Henry Hudson Drive is severed, so if you are launching from Alpine, launch from Alpine.
Thursday nights in July at the Kearney House
The single Alpine-specific event on the summer calendar sits at the north end of the Alpine Picnic Area. The historic Kearney House was a 19th-century homestead and Hudson River tavern that today serves as a living-history museum, open weekends from May through November. Weekend afternoons are the ordinary way to see it. On Thursdays, July 9, 16 and 23, from 7 to 9 PM, the house hosts open-house evenings with lemonade and watermelon, music with Mr. Thaddeus MacGregor, games and amusements, and storytelling. The house has no electricity, which changes the character of the visit in a way the daytime tour does not convey.
A caution for anyone who has not been down there after 6 PM in July: you will be driving out of Henry Hudson Drive after dark, and the park's stated hours are 6 AM to 9 PM from April through October. A 7 to 9 evening event lands you leaving right at the closing bell.
A weekend that respects the new geography
The clean way to think about it is one stem per day. If you push both stems into a single afternoon, you spend more time in the car than on the trail. Below is the shape that gets the most out of the current closures.
| Slot | Saturday, cliff-top stem | Sunday, river stem |
|---|---|---|
| Morning | Park at State Line Lookout, walk Old Route 9W south | Park at Alpine Boat Basin, start the 3.2-mile Shore Trail lollipop |
| Midday | Coffee at State Line Café before the 4:45 kitchen close | Picnic at Alpine Picnic Area, grill by 10:30 to secure one |
| Afternoon | Return along the cliff top, second lookout stop | Kearney House tour, weekend afternoons 12 to 5 |
| Evening (Jul 9, 16, 23 only) | Kearney House open-house 7 to 9 PM |
The grill note is real and worth repeating: on peak season weekends from mid-May to mid-July, all grills are taken up by 10:30 AM. If you are planning a Saturday cookout at Alpine, you are planning a nine-o'clock arrival, not a noon one.
Why laying it out this way matters
Alpine's cliff frontage is the amenity that most defines the address, and it is also the amenity that residents most often outsource to weekend visitors. The 2026 closures have shortened both classic loops, but they have also made the remaining walks more legible. Old Route 9W is a 1.5-mile paved stretch with no cars and one destination. The Shore Trail lollipop is a 3.2-mile flat walk to a stone dock with a view of the bridge. The Kearney House open-house Thursdays are three specific dates. None of that requires a plan more complicated than picking a stem and a start time.
The reason to know all of this in July, rather than in September when the crowds thin, is that these are the weeks the park is most usable and the closures most inconvenient. Residents who plan around the closures use the park more than the ones who show up expecting the old loops to work. The rockfall assessment on the Giant Stairs is ongoing, the Henry Hudson Drive repairs are indefinite, and the summer is finite.
If your relationship to Alpine is at a point where the cliffs and the river frontage are shaping how you think about the house itself, The Taylor Lucyk Group is here for that conversation whenever you are ready. Request Your Luxury Home Valuation.
